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And You Thought Your Notebook Had Good Battery Life

I opened my laptop this morning and saw the following battery life reading and had to laugh out loud. We can only dream of such battery life. But it's nice to dream. :)

Published Oct 09 2009, 05:39 AM by pthurrott
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Comments

 

g6672D said:

In before xkcd, and "x hours and y minutes remaining" dialogs. Download programs have done that to me once or twice specifying a download rate 10 times the actual maximum.

October 9, 2009 4:57 AM
 

And You Thought Your Notebook Had Good Battery Life | The Software Nook said:

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October 9, 2009 5:12 AM
 

And You Thought Your bNotebook/b Had Good Battery Life – SuperSite Blog | Prime Notebook Computer Review said:

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October 9, 2009 5:15 AM
 

gorath said:

nice to see lenovo have already made custom applets to fill up the notification area.

sigh.

October 9, 2009 6:29 AM
 

Twitter Trackbacks for And You Thought Your Notebook Had Good Battery Life - SuperSite Blog [winsupersite.com] on Topsy.com said:

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October 9, 2009 6:30 AM
 

jctierney said:

I've had similar issues with my current ThinkPad T61, however, the most I've ever seen it jump to was around 9-10 hours on a 4-5 hour battery.  I'll have to keep an eye on mine and see if it ever spikes up that high.

On a side note, I've noticed, both in Paul's reviews and on the screenshot here, that the show desktop button is about twice as wide as the typical one for Windows 7.  Does anyone know how to change the default width?  Or is this a Lenovo thing?  I actually like the wider button, seems like it would be easier to get to/press.

October 9, 2009 6:50 AM
 

And You Thought Your Notebook Had Good Battery Life - SuperSite Blog Notebook/Netbook Fans said:

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October 9, 2009 7:15 AM
 

kadarzsolt said:

@jctierney: anyone know how to change the default width

I believe it a specific to touch enabled PCs. Buttons need to be bigger and more spaced apart so they became easier to touch with fingers (as opposed to mouse pointer).

As you all remember Paul wrote an article about testing two Lenovo portables, one of which is an X200 Tablet.

www.winsupersite.com/.../thinkpad2009.asp

October 9, 2009 7:16 AM
 

Logjamming said:

Well, if it takes Windows for ever to copy files: you need good battery life!

gabriel.lozano-moran.name/.../PermaLink,guid,a0b30487-8dd9-40e5-ba89-bb9ca34a9c5a.aspx

Hope you enjoyed the Netherlands!

October 9, 2009 7:19 AM
 

jctierney said:

@kadarzsolt

Yes, that would make sense.  I knew it was a touch-enabled laptop, just didn't put the two together, oh well.

October 9, 2009 7:37 AM
 

tayme said:

robertsjoe will be here soon to say that his Mac can get that kind of battery performance.

--tayme

October 9, 2009 8:12 AM
 

planetarian said:

" I actually like the wider button, seems like it would be easier to get to/press."

Only if you are on a system with another monitor directly to the right of your primary, such that moving your mouse to the corner of the screen will likely move it to that monitor.

The position of the Show Desktop button in win7 was chosen to take advantage of the magic corner; e.g. when you move your mouse to the corner of the screen, the mouse stops when it hits the edge, and no matter how much further you move it, it will not leave that button -- making that button effectively infinite in size. This is why they can make it so thin and it not be a problem; you can simply jam your mouse to the corner of the screen and not have to worry about accuracy because it's guaranteed that you'll be on target.

I do agree with the idea of the larger button though, as I'm a multimonitor user so the magic corner isn't there.

October 9, 2009 8:24 AM
 

Dipsh t Admin said:

Logjamming, nice try.  Fixed in SP2.

October 9, 2009 8:31 AM
 

jctierney said:

@planetarian

I agree, the new button works wonderfully with my laptop (I can just swing the mouse over and, voila, my desktop is there) however, as you mentioned, it can be a pain with multiple monitors, which my desktop has.  Ultimately, it's not a big deal whether the button is wider or not, I was mainly just curious as to why it was wider.

October 9, 2009 9:13 AM
 

rr0de74@live.com said:

@Dipsh t Admin, File copies have been made better in SP2 (after 2 years) but even with 7 they are slower than XP.  Why they cant totally fix this is beyond me.

October 9, 2009 10:18 AM
 

Waethorn said:

"File copies have been made better in SP2 (after 2 years) but even with 7 they are slower than XP."

Actually they're not:

msmvps.com/.../unscientific-but-wow.aspx

October 9, 2009 11:18 AM
 

DarkSages said:

That reading could be accurate if the computer was in sleep mode. I also have a thinkpad and I notice that when I do things like lower the screen ligth all the way down the battery time goes up. Also when waking up from sleep I get reading of 12h+. I got to day I never had one go that high :-)

October 9, 2009 11:56 AM
 

gfryesc1 said:

read the Zune wrapup review.  Sounds like the reality distortion field may have worn off for paul.

October 9, 2009 12:27 PM
 

rr0de74@live.com said:

Dam what is up with the ever changing front page of this site Paul?  Are you trying to mimic the 5 versions of Windows 7 and confuse people?

OT....Interesting article about Pink/WinMo if true, WinMO/Pink is doomed.

www.appleinsider.com/.../exclusive_pink_danger_leaks_from_microsofts_windows_phone.html&page=3

With even Gartner now predicting that Windows Mobile likely has less than a year of life left in it, the failure of Pink only complicates Microsoft's already disastrous mess of mobile operations. Stuck between its efforts to sell a software platform that competes with free open source alternatives including Symbian and Android on one hand, and selling integrated solutions that take aim at successful single vendors such as RIM and Apple on the other, Microsoft has effectively shut itself out of the mobile business.

That misstep will provide RIM, Apple, Google, Nokia, and even Palm with easy access to pillage the remains of Microsoft's mobile business long before the company can mount any effective defense. Outside of the mobile business itself, that means Microsoft will also have little leverage to push its desktop technologies into the mobile frontier, from Bing search to Silverlight and .NET development. This also has other implications related to mobile clients, ranging from messaging platforms to cloud computing.

On the bright side, this affords Microsoft the opportunity to focus on providing cross platform software solutions to the successful mobile platforms, allowing the software giant to sell its Exchange ActiveSync and mobile versions of its Office titles to users of all different platforms rather than feeling the need to keep these exclusive to its own platform. In fact, the company has already broadly licensed ActiveSync to other mobile makers and has recently announced new Office mobile software under development for Symbian users.

October 9, 2009 2:00 PM
 

Waethorn said:

AppleInsider:  the website that claimed that Snow Leopard would come with a side of beef.

Instead, Apple had people saying:

www.youtube.com/watch

Since 1984.

October 9, 2009 2:41 PM
 

rr0de74@live.com said:

I played with a HTC Hero from Sprint today at a Sprint store.  The iPhone better look out.  With more and more Google phones coming out, Windows Mobile is going to be a distant 4th very soon.

I think that Andriod will blow past the iPHone at some point.  It will have a ton of apps, already does and the majority are free.

October 9, 2009 2:48 PM
 

Waethorn said:

"I played with a HTC Hero from Sprint today at a Sprint store.  The iPhone better look out.  With more and more Google phones coming out, Windows Mobile is going to be a distant 4th very soon."

That comment makes no sense for a number of reasons:

The HTC Sense UI is a derivation/evolution of their already-existing TouchFlo 3D UI which has been in existance since Windows Mobile 6.1 phones from last year.  Sense is on Windows Mobile 6.5 phones that HTC is shipping, including those 6.1 phones that are upgradeable, like the Touch Diamond 2, Snap, and Touch Pro 2, consisting of the 3 main form factors that HTC produces - touch, type, and touch & type, respectively.  HTC has already stated that Sense is their new UI going forward, and will be platform independent.  I've seen Sense.  It doesn't wow me any more than the shift from TouchFlo from old HTC Touch models to TouchFlo 3D, which is just a minor evolution.

"It will have a ton of apps"

Hearsay.  Nothing more than a guess.  We can look at previous Linux phones for a hint at what is to come.

"already does"

Define "ton".  Windows Mobile has thousands of real developers designing productive applications for the platform long before any "app store" was made for any platform.  Handango has been, and continues to be one of the most successful Windows Mobile online application stores for years, and has twice as many Windows Mobile apps as for any other platform.  There were even PC games that were ported to Windows Mobile (then, Pocket PC OS) before the iPod was even launched.

October 9, 2009 4:04 PM
 

Waethorn said:

FYI:

The HTC Touch Pro 2 being released on Telus supports both EVDO Rev A, as well as HSPA 2100.

October 9, 2009 4:19 PM
 

rr0de74@live.com said:

Ok I predict that ATT, Sprint and Verizon will offer just as many Android phones if not more, than WinMo phones by the end 2010.

October 9, 2009 6:36 PM
 

rr0de74@live.com said:

Add T-mobile to that list.

October 9, 2009 6:39 PM
 

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October 9, 2009 8:50 PM
 

robertsjoe said:

Microsoft lie at every chance. Everyone knows Windows' battery performance sucks, with Macs getting much better battery life.

October 9, 2009 9:56 PM
 

A Downtown Skateboard Park - Cityline | Hartford News | Skateboarding Leisure Knowledge said:

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October 13, 2009 8:59 AM
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Paul Thurrott is the guy behind the SuperSite for Windows. Way behind. :)
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